SCHOOLS WEIGH HOW TO SPEND NEW FUNDS

After years of making difficult budget decisions, schools in San Diego County and California are in the unfamiliar position of deciding how to spend more money.

They are looking forward to an infusion of revenue for public education included in Gov. Jerry Brown’s just-released budget proposal.

The governor’s finance plan would also offer districts new freedom in how they spend state money and increasingly shift funds to the neediest students.

Brown would give $2.7 billion more for K-12 education and community colleges in the 2013-14 academic year, thanks to increased taxes from Proposition 30, which voters approved in November.

All told, the state would allocate $56.2 billion to schools and two-year colleges.

Even as school districts struggle to decipher and assess Brown’s budget, many are already considering ways to spend the money. Their shopping lists will likely vary greatly because Brown wants to abolish most “categorical funding,” which has historically tied certain pots of money to particular services — from school-bus transportation to class-size reduction to maintenance.

The San Diego Unified School District has decided to spend the bulk of its additional revenue on long-delayed raises for teachers and cancellation of some furlough days.

In San Ysidro, educators hope the funding boost will pay for efforts to prepare students for new Common Core academic standards, including teacher training, that will drive revamped state tests set to hit classrooms in two years.

Critics worry that schools might neglect certain programs that categorical money has long supported, such as career-technical courses and programs designed to keep class sizes low in the earliest grades.

Educators said local decision-making would allow schools to customize their budgets based on their distinct priorities.

“Local control is way more beneficial than creating categorical programs in Sacramento because each local district understands the needs of its students. We are much closer to the issues at each of our campuses than those in Sacramento ever are,” said Eric Dill, associate superintendent of business services at the San Dieguito Union High School District.

Through 2020, the governor intends to overhaul how California distributes money to public schools by offering additional funds to districts with the highest concentration of poor students, English learners and foster children.

Brown said the state should spend more on students who have “disproportionate challenges.”

“Growing up in Compton or Richmond is not like it is to grow up in Los Gatos or Beverly Hills or Piedmont,” Brown said Thursday. “It is controversial, but it is right and it is fair.”

Gloria Madera, assistant superintendent of educational services for the San Ysidro district, said Brown has presented a compassionate budget that recognizes the serious needs of so many California children.

“This is not about equality, this is about equity,” Madera said. “We are trying to bridge the gap. A lot of students here need additional resources.”

Education finance experts characterized Brown’s proposed budget as one of the most complicated California has seen in years.

“This budget has good news, but it has so many moving parts that it’s difficult to understand,” said Ron Bennett, president and CEO of School Services of California Inc., an education finance consulting firm that represents about 90 percent of the state’s 1,000 districts.

Education officials expect to receive a more detailed version of the budget later this month.

San Diego schools chief Bill Kowba said the budget proposal is a “step forward,” but that at first look it’s not enough to protect California’s second-largest district from deep cuts next year.

“As we go through our own budget process in the coming weeks, we will make clear to both the governor’s office and to the Legislature where the proposal needs to be improved in order to achieve the goal of stability for our schools in the coming year,” Kowba said in a statement.

The district may still have to make deep cuts to offset a sizable deficit in its $1.1 billion operating budget for the next academic year. One school board trustee, Scott Barnett, said that gap could be as much as $50 million.

Kowba said the district needs a $500 hike in per-student attendance money in 2013-14 to avoid teacher layoffs and cancel all furlough days. Brown’s proposal would give the district a per-student increase of $340 to $400, according to preliminary estimates.

Under a labor pact approved last summer, San Diego Unified is obligated to use 57 percent of any additional state education money it will get in 2013-14 for teacher raises that have long been delayed. Teachers agreed to forgo pay raises of about 7 percent that were set to be paid in the 2012-13 school year to save roughly 1,500 teaching jobs. They also voted to extend furlough days for a third and fourth year to help the district cope with the state’s fiscal crisis.

San Diego Unified expects to receive enough new state funds to issue 2 percent raises (retroactively) effective Jan. 1 and restore one or two of five furlough days scheduled for the 2012-13 school year.

“I am so happy we can finally give these educators something,” said Bill Freeman, who represents 7,000 teachers as president of the San Diego Education Association. “We can give them a reason to be optimistic, we can give them a reason to continue doing the things they do knowing that someone really appreciates them.”

Two more raises totaling 5 percent would be issued as money becomes available, according to the contract approved last summer.

“We have to factor all of this into a reanalysis of our budget,” said Bernie Rhinerson, the district’s chief of staff.